Dragon Mercenaries
by TF2 Crossover Man
Summary: When the Mercenaries of RED are sucked into the world of the Viking Archipelago, they meet our favorite dragon riders. With new threats on the horizon, will these newcomers from another world be able to aid their new friends? Story takes place right after Season 4 of Dragons: Race To The Edge. - DISCONTINUED -
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note: Hello everyone and welcome to this new crossover story! This time the mercenaries of RED are going to be flung into Hiccups world! Quick note before we dive in, this starts right after Season 4 of Dragons: Race To The Edge. So in other words, Viggo just died and Hiccup and Astrid are together. Besides that, its time to start this journey!**

It was a beautiful day out on the ocean. The water was calm and the sky was clear of any clouds. It was the perfect day to just relax and have fun. Especially after the ending of a war.

On a small wooded island, with tall snow capped mountains in the center, was a small base. It was built out on the edge of island over a small bay. Made mostly out of wood, their were several huts with peculiar designs on each of them. These were all connected by ladders and wooden platforms that also led to a large metal structure in the center. Near this structure was another wooden structure where double doors led inside to the dining room. On the ground next to this complicated structure was a dome that seemed to be a training area. Around this base, ballista, outposts and zip lines were built for the defensive purposes.

This place was the Edge. A place built by six vikings and their dragons. Yes, dragons. This strange world was inhabited by these mythical and extraordinary creatures. At first, dragons and humans fought. That is until one boy was able to tame one and learned to fly it. He took this knowledge to his tribe and after many trials and events, he was able to convince everyone that the dragons were not evil beings.

This same boy was right now laying on the beach next to his dragon. It was jet black, with large wings and a thin tail that ended in one tail fin and an red artificial tail fin to replace the one it had lost. Its head was slightly small for its body, but with large eyes and a few black antenna on the back of its head, it didn't really matter. The dragon yawned, showing bright red gums and no teeth. However, he could unlock its teeth at any time if necessary. His name was Toothless and a Night Fury dragon, the only one left in existence.

The dragon looked towards its owner, friend and ally. The boy was around nineteen and was on the skinny side. He had red heroic hair, a few freckles on his smart looking face, and on one of his legs his foot was replaced by an iron leg. This was due to an accident that had happened to him while trying to convince everyone that the dragons could be allies. He wore his usually flight suit, a reddish tunic and leather pants.

He was none other than Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. Son of the chief on the island he was born on, Berk. He had come to this remote island to search for more dragons. He was a huge dragon nerd. However he hadn't come alone. He had been joined by his five loyal friends; Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut. They were all dragon riders like him and would go to any troubles to see dragons safe.

These policies have gotten them into scuffles. Most notably the latest with dragon hunters and their smart and cunning leader, Viggo. A week ago, Viggo had lost control of his dragon hunter army to his buff and powerful brother, Ryker. Ryker had proceeded to take over and use the massive sea dragon they had captured to try and take over the edge. Viggo had come to Hiccup and somehow persuaded his old enemy to take out his brother. Hiccup had agreed and they did defeat Ryker, but Viggo turned on Hiccup and held Hiccup's girlfriend, Astrid, hostage for a sacred artifact that Hiccup had called the Dragon Eye. This object could tell a person about unknown locations and dragons. Hiccup however had thrown the artifact into the volcano behind Viggo and in his desperation to get it, Viggo fell in with the artifact and concussively ending the war between the dragon riders and hunters.

Since then, Hiccup and his gang have been rebuilding the Edge. A few days ago they had finally finished and for once in many a time, Hiccup had let everyone relax. He was no tyrant and was incredibly fair. But he did sometimes push his friends and himself to find new dragons. Without the Dragon Eye though, that wasn't really an option and Hiccup knew that they needed a rest after the fight with the dragon hunters.

This led to him and his dragon basking in the sun while the others celebrated back at the training dome. He loved his friends and especially his girlfriend, but he wanted to contemplate somethings on his own. He had still not fully forgiven himself for the death of Viggo. He had been his mortal enemy, but he had not wanted to end the way it did. Viggo had been a brilliant adversary and could have had so much potential. If it he had had the chance, Hiccup could have changed him like Dagur did, though Hiccup hadn't really been the one to change him.

Hiccup sighed and turned to look at his faithful dragon. Toothless opened one adorable eye and snorted softly.

"Yeah, I know buddy," Hiccup murmured. He was worrying way to much when he should be relaxing and having fun. But if that was the case, he wouldn't be Hiccup.

His musings were cut short when a voice above him called out to him.

"Hiccup!"

Hiccup looked up just in time to see a blue dragon with a spiky tail and a large beak like head with a horn coming out land on the sand close to him and Toothless. A girl jumped off of the saddle on the blue dragons back and caressed its head for second before walking towards Hiccup.

She was petite girl with long blonde hair wrapped around her back. She wears a blue shirt and red skirt with spikes on them which is held on by a skull emblazoned belt. She also wears shoulder guards and kneepads and arm wrapping on her arms. Slung over her back is her favorite double edge axe.

Hiccup and Astrid had only been dating for a few weeks. It had taken a very long time for them to confess their feelings and even after they had been forced to be preserved so they wouldn't let the others know right away. But, it was revealed right after Viggo's death. Since then, Astrid and Hiccup had been everywhere together. If it was rebuilding a part of the base, they would choose a section together. Feed the dragons, they would do together. They cared each other way too much and especially for Astrid, she was concerned about her boyfriend after the attack. She knew that he had been sad to see Viggo die. As a warrior viking, she couldn't completely relate to him, but she understood his side.

She walked up to him and fell on the sand next to him. Beside them her dragon, a Deadly Nadder called Stormfly, and Toothless were playing around on the sand.

"I see you think you can go off on your own without me noticing," Astrid said smiling a little as she played with Hiccups hair, braiding it into a small curl. Hiccup smiled a little and said, "Well you know me Astrid. I'm always running off."

Astrid didn't respond immediately and finished the curl with Hiccups hair. Then she looked at him and her smile faded. She took his face in her and turned it towards her.

"Hiccup. It wasn't your fault. You know it isn't. He forced you and even if he had lived he would still betrayed you."

Hiccup stared into Astrids beautiful eyes. He didn't respond and just stared. Astrid rolled her eyes and pulled him for a kiss to snap him out of it. It did the trick and he immediately kissed back. They shared a private moment over the ocean.

When they did break apart, Hiccup knew that she was right. He knew all along, but he needed someone to tell him. Someone he could trust with his life. He smiled and put his arm around Astrid and pulled her in towards him. Astrid didn't resist and wrapped her arms around Hiccup and laid her head on his chest. They lay their, enjoying each others presence as the two dragons played around with each other.

* * *

About an hour later, Hiccup and Astrid were woken up by a slimy wet object, licking them. They immediately got up and began to wipe the slime off of them with Hiccup yelling, "Toothless!"

The dragon in question was right beside them and was growling at something that wasn't Hiccup or Astrid. What was more, Stormfly was looking in the same direction and had fallen into a defensive stance.

Confused, the two dragon riders approached their respective dragons to see what the matter was, but the dragons merely grunted and kept their eyes on something on the ocean. The riders turned to look out on the ocean and became just as guarded as their dragons.

Over the horizon, a small wooden viking boat with only one sail was sailing towards the island.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other, the same look reflected in each others faces. Dragon hunters?

"It can't be," Hiccup muttered, "Viggo and Ryker both died. There is no way they would attack on their own. And especially in that tiny thing."

They both looked back at the incoming ship. It had gotten considerably closer and they noticed no ballista, no catapults, or even any shield lining the sides of the boat. It was just a plain old boat sailing straight into their waters.

Astrid was just about to climb on to Stormfly and warn the others and tell them to get ready, when Hiccup grabbed her hand and ran into the foliage lining the beach. There he crouched down in the bushes and Astrid, slightly bewildered, followed suit. Toothless and Stormfly also followed and despite being good sized creatures, they were able to keep themselves hidden quite well.

The boat sailed closer and closer to the point that the two vikings and their dragons could hear voices coming from the boat. They were loud and each voice had a different accent to them. This confused Hiccup and Astrid. The Viking Archipelago didn't really have many people that talked differently. But some of these accents were completely new to them and sounded unnatural.

After what seemed like hours, the boat finally beached onto the sand. Hiccup could make out nine people on the boat. All of them seemed to be men. Hiccup and Astrid exchanged a quick look. There was still no sign of these mysterious people being enemies but to be safe, they stayed still and behind the bushes.

After a few minutes, a young man in his late twenties jumped out of the boat and onto the sand. He was wearing a red shirt and brown pants that ended in strange black shoes out of a material that Hiccup and Astrid did not recognize fully. He had a duffle bag slung over his back and on his head he had strange looking hat instead of a helmet. On this hat was a strange device that covered one of his ears and a strange metal thing coming down around his face. (His headpiece) He wore two dog tags around his neck and his hands were covered in wrappings. In one hand he was carrying a wooden club of some sort and in the over was tossing a white ball up and down. One look at his face was enough to say that he was an incredible cocky and arrogant person.

The young man looked back at the boat and then yelled in a strange and obnoxious accent, "See? Nothing here chuckleheads!"

From the boat, there was a bit of murmuring before eight other figures stepped out onto the beach as well.

The first was a muscular man in his early forties. He wore a red jacket and brown pants with black boots on his feet. On his head he wore a helmet, but unlike viking helmets it had no horns sticking out of it and this helmet was so large that it covered the mans eyes. His jaw was set and serious. In his hand he clutched an iron shovel. Hiccup and Astrid had a sneaking suspicion that this shovel was used for gardening or digging.

The next was a very weird sight for the two vikings. It was impossible to make out if it was a man or women due to being covered head to toe in a shiny red suit that Hiccup swore was fire proof due to its design. Out of what material though, he had no idea. Covering the face of this figure was a black mask. This also gave Hiccup the idea that this thing was designed to be fire proofed. To complete the mysterious and slightly unnerving sight was alarge double edge axe that seemed to made out of volcanic rock and lava that it held in its hands.

The next man was the closet to looking like a person that lived in the Viking Archipelago. He was dark skinned and wore a black jacket and vest with black pants and boots. He wore an eyepatch over his right eye and a black beanie on his head. On his left arm a round shield with a spike sticking out in the center was strapped on. In his right hand, he held a long rusted ancient looking sword with leather straps on the hilt.

At first, Hiccup and Astrid didn't realize the next man was a man due to the size. Many vikings were large in size but this man was huge. The only viking that was maybe just as large was Hiccups father, Stoick The Vast. This man had a round belly but it seemed to be a lot of muscle as well considering his arms were pure muscle. He wore a red shirt and vest and brown pants like the most of his other friends. His head was devoid of hair and his face was powerful and serious, but there were smile lines around his mouth. In his hands he carried a massive crate that was filled with strange weapons. Weird clubs, pickaxe's, axes, swords, gloves, wrenches, saws, machetes(Kukri's), and knifes. This made Hiccup and Astrid go on a bit of an alert. People did not come on an island so heavily armed without reasons.

The next man was most likely the most friendly looking. He wore a yellow hard hat on his head and welding goggles over his eyes. He clothes consisted of a red shirt covered by brown overalls. His pants were the same color as his other comrades but he wore yellow kneepads. His left hand was completely bare of anything, just a normal hand, but his right hand was not a exactly a hand. It was strangest and most intriguing thing that Hiccup had ever seen. It was made out of some strange electoral devices and as the man moved, the robotic hand moved with. He was in complete control of it.

Next up was a man in a white coat, the tails of which fell to his feet. Underneath the coat he wore a white buttoned shirt, brown pants and boots. On his hands he wore red gloves and in one of them he carried a white serrated bonesaw. His face was a smart looking face with short slick black hair and spectacles over his eyes. Despite his calm attitude, Hiccup had a very strange feeling he was not the most stable of the men.

Next to this man, a thin man in a vest and red shirt under it like the others. He wore brown pants and shoes. His eyes were covered by shades and covering his head was an outback hat. Slung over his back was a quiver full of arrows to go along with the bow he held.

The last man was the weirdest dressed for Hiccup and Astrid. His face was covered in a balaclava his red suit and tie was very strange for viking society. His dress pants and shoes did not help the very unthreatening and outpace appearance. In his gloved hand he held a butterfly knife, which he twirled thoughtfully as he joined his friends on the beach.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other. There were many option in this situation. They could take off on their dragons and gather the others. They could come out of hiding and force them to surrender and tell them who they were. Or they could stay put. Before they could decide, the young man started talking again and they listened intently.

"Finally on dry land, ey fellas?"

There was a murmur of agreement. Then the man in the suit spoke in a soft and professional accent. "There was that strange structure on the edge of the island. We are not alone gentlemen."

The young man scoffed. "Oh come on! That crappy looking pile of wood? Its most likely a ruin of some person that can't build and left."

Hiccup felt Astrid tense next to him. He reached over and grabbed her hand, soothing her. She relaxed and squeezed his hand. Back out on the beach the man in shades turned to the bushes they were in, the eyes under the shades narrowed.

"I say we go to that place and build frickin' camp," the young man continued tossing his ball up and down. The suited man just rolled his eyes and seemed to give up on the young man. The dark skinned man was looking up the sky and seemed to be searching for something. The robotic handed man noticed and asked with a heavy sultry accent, "Whatcha looking for Demo?"

The dark skinned man, named Demo, l turned his head to look at the man with the robotic hand and said excitedly in a surprisingly familiar accent to some vikings, "Ey lad! Im looking for them dragons!"

The others groaned a little. The young man face palmed and said, "For the last frickin' time! There are no dragons! They don't exist you drunken cyclops!"

Demo flared up and stomped towards the young man jabbed him in the chest with his shield hand. "Look boyo! I know that I saw one when we were out there! Bloody hell! Ever since we were stuck out there, I could see those flying buggers all around." He stepped back a little and his angry face was replaced with an expression of wonder. "I just want to meet one close up. They have always been huge in Scottish folklore."

There was a short silence. Then the large man carrying the crate said in a surprisingly calm voice, "Even if there are dragons, we must find place to stay."

The robotic handed man nodded and began to pace a little. The man in the white coat also brought his hand up to his chin in a thinking stance. Meanwhile, back in the bushes, Hiccup and Astrid began to slowly reach for their dragons saddle in an attempt to get on and fly out confront these people. The moment they took a step, the man in shades knocked an arrow to his bow and pointed it straight at the spot that were hiding.

"Come on out. We know your there," he said in a calm, almost expressionless, voice. The other eight turned to the spot he was looking at and lowered into defensive stances. The big guy dropped the crate behind him and took out a pair of brass knuckles from the crate and fit them on his massive fists.

Hiccup and Astrid moved quickly and swiftly, the need for stealth completely gone, and sat on there dragons and together rose up into the air and over the nine newcomers. The nine all looked completely taken aback and astonished. Even the man in shades slipped his arrow and it fell to the sand next to him. Hiccup and Astrid full a few yards over the beach and landed facing the nine alongside the water. Their expressions were warning and serious, their dragons hissing and threatening.

There was long silence as the tension was so palpable that it could have been tasted. The only movement was the man in shades swiftly reaching down and knocking his arrow again. But he did not shoot. The two groups just stared each other down. No one moved. No one spoke.

That is until...

"HA! I BLOODY KNEW IT!"

Everyone was startled by the suddenly loud and excited voice of Demo who was now laughing happily, his sword hanging forgotten in his hand. He turned to the young man and tired to say something cocky and on the lines of, "I told you so," but couldn't manage it and kept on laughing. The riders were taken a back completely and just stared as the fully grown armed man completely lost himself. Finally, the thing in the mask patted him in the back and a few muffled noises came out, which Hiccup realized was the thing talking.

"Mmmph mph mmph," it said. Though Hiccup could not understand what it had said, it had been able to calm down the one eyed man and he patted the thing on the its shoulder.

"Ey, thanks Pyro. I needed that," then he turned to the young man. Next to him, Pyro just turned to look at the dragons and tilted its head to the side as if it was contemplating the appearance of the creatures.

"So dragons are fake ey? Is that what you said Scout?" Demo said smugly. Scout just scuffed and said in an annoyed voice, "Look pally, they don't exist in our world! So how the hell was I supposed to know they existed in this frickin' world?"

Demo was about to respond when the large man suddenly opened his mouth and boomed out, "DEMOMAN! SCOUT! BE QUIET BABIES!"

Demoman and Scout immediately fell silent and turned back to the riders, a little sheepish. The large man grunted his satisfaction and the robotic handed man stepped up towards Hiccup and Astrid. Toothless let out a low growl, but the man rose his hands in a sign of peace. Then looked into the eyes of Hiccup.

"Howdy partner! We are very sorry for the hostile introduction. I can assure you and your friend that we mean no harm."

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged looks. These men were very strange. They acted like they had never seen a dragon and the one called Scout even said something about different worlds. Not something that a sane person would be talking about. But something told the two riders that these people were not crazy. Or at least not mentally crazy.

"Who are you?" Hiccup asked tentatively. It was easy to get rid of the obvious questions first and there wasn't much else he could ask besides that. The robot handed man inclined his head gave Hiccup a friendly smile.

"Ah of course. Well the skinny and obnoxious boy is Scout. The with the helmet and tough attitude is Soldier. The masked one is Pyro. The one eyed fella is Demoman. The large one is Heavy. The one in the white coat is Medic. The one with the bow is Sniper. The one in the suit is Spy. And I'm Engineer."

He finished the introductions with a wave of his robotic hand. The other eight all murmured their own greetings. Hiccup and Astrid exchange looks once again. These names were very strange as well. They were more like jobs than actual names. Hiccup turned back to Engineer and asked, his voice still level and cautious, "Where do you come from?

Engineer's smile melted and he took off his hard hat to reveal no hair. "Well. Umm, this maybe hard to believe but as Scout said, we come from another world. To understand, I might as well start at the beginning."

Engineer cleared his throat and was about to begin when Hiccup held up his hand. It felt strange for him to stoping and older person from talking but he did not have much choice.

"Follow us to our base. The rest of our friends are there. They should hear this with us."

Astrid looked at Hiccup surprised. "Hiccup? Are you sure?"

Hiccup didn't respond immediately. He just stared at the nine newcomers. This was admittedly a very risky idea, but Hiccup had not had any reason to suspect them of being enemies. The short scuffle where the name named Sniper pointed his bow at them had been cautionary. These people were truly different and Hiccup wanted to make sure everyone heard about it. He looked at Astrid and nodded.

Engineer put his hat back on and smiled warmly. "My, we much appreciate the hospitality and will be happy to come along," he turned back to the others and without needing to say anything the group began to trudge forward, Heavy picking up the crate of weapons on the way. Hiccup and Astrid rose up into the air and began to lead the group towards the Edge. It wasn't a far walk. Just around a curve of the island.

On the way, Hiccup noticed the newcomers look around in search of what he was sure was more dragons. His suspicion was confirmed when a small Terrible Terror flew overhead and the newcomers stopped to admire it. That is except for one.

The one called Scout was walking quite fast and even though Hiccup and Astrid were in the air and flying ahead of the group, he had been able to catch up so he was right under them. When the Edge was in sight Hiccup pointed to it and called down to Engineer and his friends. The eight following nodded and picked up the pace. When Hiccup looked down to notify Scout, he was shocked to see him gone. Hiccup began to look around when he heard Astrid gasp. He looked up to see her pointing ahead at the bottom of the Edge. He followed her gaze and his jaw dropped.

Running up the steps and ramps of Dragons Edge was Scout. His speed was incredible for the human and matched the speed of a Speed Stinger. In just a matter of minutes he had made it to the top where the cliff leveled out and where the training dome was located. Naturally he ran towards it and, Hiccup realized, the other dragon riders. They didn't know about the newcomers. If they saw Scout now...

"Go," Astrid said reading Hiccup's expression, "I can lead the others there." Hiccup nodded and spurred Toothless forward. The Night Fury, sensing its riders urgency, put on a burst of speed and raced towards the training dome. In a matter of second they arrived and Toothless landed next to it. Hiccup dismounted and ran towards the round arena. When he got there, he was quite surprised of what he saw.

Scout had found the other riders and their dragons. Fishlegs and his Gronckle, a large bumpy looking dragon that love to eat rocks and can spit out lava, called Meatlug where on the side, watching Scout carefully as the newcomer examined Tuffnut's and Ruffnut's Hideous Zippleback, a two headed dragon that could spit out gas from one head and blow it up with a spark from the other head, called Barf and Belch. Tuffnut and Ruffnut themselves were smiling their usual mischievous and proud smiles as they told Scout of the awesome stuff that Barf and Belch could do. Nearby, Snotlout and his Monstrous Nightmare, a large fiery looking dragon with a mean head full of razor sharp teeth, called Hookfang, watched the whole thing unfold with very confused expressions.

When Hiccup did enter the arena with Toothless padding along behind him, Snotlout turned to him and gestured to Scout. "Umm, who in Thor's name is this? And what is he doing on our island?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes at Snotlout's usual demanding and obnoxious comments and said calmly, "He and eight other people landed ashore our island. If you haven't noticed, he is dressed very strangely and they claim to be from another world. I brought them here so we could hear the explanation."

Fishlegs nodded and watched as Scout ran around Barf and Belch, making comments about the dragons looks. After a few minutes, Astrid and Stormfly landed and the eight other newcomers reached them. They quickly introduced themselves to the other riders, before they all went to the dining room and gathered around the small stone circle, built around a brazier. There they all got comfortable and looked towards Engineer who cleared his throat and stood up and began his tale.

"We nine come from a world called earth and each of us come from around that world to a single place and purpose. To be hired by an old cranky bloke to kill the clones of use that were being used by this cranky mans brother. So you could call us mercenaries I suppose. Anyway, we fought the over side for many many years. We were the Reliable Excavation Demolition or RED for short and the other side was Builders League United or BLU for short. The nine of us were hired for specific and different reasons. Scout's speed and ability to be incredible frustrating to catch would prove as a distraction for the team. Soldiers power and high damage output would push the team forward. Pyro's flame, yes he carried a flamethrower, would cripple the other team and real enemy Spy's. Demoman's explosives would blow up oncoming charges and his incredible skill with the sword would be a huge annoyance to the enemy. Heavy was the clog in the enemy charge, being the massive and most powerful mercenary of us. I would be the defensive person, taking out people with my Sentry's. Medic would heal the team up and let us be able to charge in with less care then necessary. Sniper would pick off people from afar and score valuable headshots to bring them down quickly. And finally, Spy would sneak around the enemy team with his disguises and backstab them. Now every time one us or one the someone on the other team died, we would have to wait a few seconds before being brought back to life by a re-spawn generator. We would have no time to recover and would have to dive right back in. Now that is explained, we can explain why we ended up here a bit more clearly. We were fighting on unqiue battlefield where only medieval type weapons were allowed. Basically weapons that are similar or at least not completely overpowering of the weapons you use. Despite that there are many strange things we use that were allowed in this mode and have been taken with us here. Anyway, we were doing our usual thing when suddenly a wizard we know as Merasmus, sucked us into a portal with all our weapons and left us in the middle of an ocean on a small boat. For a three days we sailed in one direction hoping to find land, all the while thinking we saw dragons but not being too sure. Then we arrived here."

Engineer finished and sat down. There was silence as the mercenaries looked at the young dragon riders trying to think on what to do. Finally, Hiccup got up and stared at Engineer. The silence continued again. Then he smiled and said, "I believe you."

The mercenaries exchanged looks and Scout muttered, "Yeah, whats there not to believe?"

Hiccup continued, "I am happy you disclosed that information to us, even though you didn't know who we even were. Well in exchange for the patience you have shown, we will introduce ourselves and welcome you to stay on your island and regroup."

Astrid then got up and said, "I am Astrid Hofferson, rider of Stormfly. I am actually quite intrigued to see how you guys fight as a team."

Soldier got up and pounded his chest with his fist. "Missy, you have yet to see glory! We are the best of the best! Especially with me charging them to victory!"

Scout snorted derisevely and Soldier whirled around to face him but Demoman grabbed the patriotic man and convinced him to sit down. Once he did, Fishlegs got up and introduced himself. He was a large round boy of around nineteen, He wore a large leather tunic that covered his legs and only showed his leather boots at the bottom.

"I am Fishlegs Ingerman, rider of Meatlug. I am excited to know you guys better and train you on dragons."

Demoman now got up and exclaimed, "You will be teaching us about dragons lad? Oh please me first, I have been dying for this moment me whole life!"

Fishlegs smiled warmly. "I'm really glad to see you are so excited. We can get started as soon as we can, Demoman was it?"

Demoman nodded and smiled before sitting down to let the introductions continue.

Next was Snotlout. He was on the shorter side, but his arms were muscular and he carried himself with such pride and arrogance, he seemed like he was everywhere. He wore a reptile skinned shirt and leather pants held up by belt with a large metal belt buckle.

"You nine have the honor to meet the one and only Snotlout Jorgenson. My dragon is Hookfang and we are happy to take any compliments and praise of our majesty."

No one stood up for him. The mercenaries just contemplated him a little but with little interest. This annoyed Snotlout incredibly, but before her could say anything else, he was pushed to the side by Tuffnut and Ruffnut. These two twins were very similar looking despite being opposite gender. Tuffnut had a mischievous face and his blonde hair fell around him in dreadlocks. His sister had a very similar face and her hair also fell around her face in a similar design except that she had two large dreadlocks. Their clothes were almost identical, leather jackets and shirts.

"We are Tuffnut and Ruffnut, and we are the proud riders of Barf and Belch," they said in unison, "we hope you guys can keep up with our amazing ideas and practical jokes!"

Scout scoffed and said, "oh please, you guys think your the best at practical jokes and tricks? Well clearly you haven't met me!"

Finally, Hiccup stood up. "I am Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. Son of the chief of our island. I am the rider of Toothless. I am very happy to get to know you and share the different types of knowledge we posses.

At this Medic stood up and bowed towards Hiccup. "I cannot of agreed more, Herr Hiccup. My expertise in the medical field should prove very useful."

Hiccup smiled and he looked towards the other dragon riders who were smiling along with him. Even Snotlout couldn't resist a grin.

The other mercenaries also stood up and they smiled back at the dragon riders. Engineer walked up to Hiccup and extended his robotic hand for a hand shake and Hiccup accepted it without hesitation. From there a powerful alliance was born.

 **And that is the end of the first installment to this new crossover! Thanks so much for reading! Now before we end it, I do need to ask a favor if anyone is inclined. I will need a new main antagonist for the series and i'm wondering if anyone would like to submit some OC ideas for this** **villain. If you are interested, I need to know his/her name, tribe, weapon, beliefs, goals, siblings (optional), type of followers/army, and relationship to dragons. If you guys are interested in this you guys can put an idea in the review section. Besides that we should be golden. Reviews are always welcome and I will see you in the next chapter... BYE BYE!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Note: Hello everyone and welcome back to another chapter. I apologize for not posting for so long but I am very busy these days and can never bring myself to type. However, I have gotten a few reviews asking for this continue. So I am here to continue the story for you guys! Before we start, I do want to say thank you to one of the guests who suggested Gray Mann. I had completely forgotten about him and he could be useful. But if anyone else has a new viking villain they would like to submit, by all means. Now thats out of the way, lets get cracking!**

 **The Edge**

The next morning, the mercenaries and vikings awoke together and met each other at the dining room for breakfast. Even though an alliance had been formed, it was still slightly uncomfortable. They were so different in many ways. Not to mention how clueless the mercenaries were about the world they were in.

As the group ate, Hiccup and the other dragon riders related the story of their battle with the dragon hunters to the mercenaries who were dually impressed with some of the actions that had taken place. When the story had been finished, a few of the mercenaries clapped and Heavy yelled, "Very Good!" Then Engineer told Hiccup that he and the other mercenaries were planning to build a house for the nine of them on a patch of plain grass at the edge of the forest that covered most of the island, next to the arena. The other riders were a little hesitant about this proposition but Hiccup assured them that it would be fine and told Engineer that they were allowed to do so.

After breakfast, the whole group went down next to the arena where the riders dragons were waiting. Astrid, Tuffnut and Ruffnut decided to take a spin around the island to make sure everything was in order and got onto to their dragons. Snotlout just lumbered over to Hookfang and leaned against the Monstrous Nightmares belly, enjoying the heat emanating off it. On a small flat rock, Engineer laid out a few plans he had drawn up earlier for the house they were going to build. Hiccup, Medic and Spy gathered around the plans as well to understand what was needed. Hiccup offered for the dragon riders to help the construction, but Engineer declined saying kindly, "I really appreciate the offer partner, but you have given us your hospitality. Not to mention, you fellas just got out of a war. You deserve to relax."

Hiccup was about to insist, but Engineer held up his robotic hand and Hiccup fell silent, knowing the discussion was over. Still, he decided to observe the mercenaries at work. He knew they must be a good team in battle, but what about other tasks such as construction?

After reading over the plans for a few minutes, Engineer walked over to Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, and Sniper leaving Medic to survey the plans a bit more. Spy decided that his uses in construction would be very limited and instead turned to Hiccup and struck up a conversation about the different tribes in the Viking Archipelago.

Meanwhile, Engineer was assigning jobs to his comrades. "Alright boys, we are going to do this quick and efficiently like the building of a mini sentry. Pyro, I need you to use them axes to chop down those trees so we can get wood. Soldier, I want you to use one of the axes the vikings got to chop the fallen trees into separate parts and no you can not use you pickaxes or shovels. Sniper, I need you to find vines and anything that is the equivalent to rope in the forest. Heavy, you will be in charge of carrying the logs and planks towards me and Demoman. We will be constructing the building and you will all join us when we have enough. Understood?"

There was a collective cheer from the others and they began to set off. However, just as Demoman was skipping alongside Engineer, excited to work, he heard his name being called from the aren and turned to see Fishlegs standing next to Meatlug. Demo stopped and waved happily. Fishlegs waved back for a second before yelling, "I was planning to teach you a bit about Gronckles, but if you are busy we can do it another time."

When Demo heard this, his face cracked into a huge smile and without another word, ran towards Fishlegs and Meatlug. Engineer turned to see the Scottish cyclops run out on the job and was about to yell at him to come back, when he saw how happy Demo was as he patted Meatlug and fed him a rock. Engineer closed his mouth and smiled, happy to see his comrade so excited and decided to leave him to it. Besides, with Pyro, Soldier, Sniper, and Heavy working on getting resources they should have enough in a short amount of time. And then with them all working together to build the structure... well, they maybe able to do it in one day! Engineer grin grew wider at this thought and he joined his comrades and friends to help them grab resources as well. However, he had forgotten one person in his excitement to get the construction going and as he joined Soldier to cut some logs Heavy suddenly said, "Where is tiny Scout?"

The Bostonian mercenary in question was walking through the unknown forest and congratulating himself on such a brilliant escape. He had known that Engineer would have made him do something boring and hard to help build the structure. So as they had been exiting the dining hall and making their way down to the arena, Scout had quietly walked away from the group in a bored fashion before breaking into a run when he was sure they wouldn't spot him. He could have gone down to the beach, but he suspected he would be found easily by one of the dragon riders. So he decided to venture into the forest and find out what lurked there. Unlike most people, Scout was so cocky he could walk into an unknown and possibly dangerous forest without worry just because he had small black iron sword with him (The Three-Rune Sword).

As he walked, he spotted a few small dragons that he remembered Fishlegs calling Terrible Terrors. He didn't understand why they were called that. They were the length of his arm and looked no more dangerous than a hawk. Scout just scoffed when he saw them and continued on deeper into the forest.

He was just about getting bored and considering if he should head back, when a cliff wall loomed ahead. But more significantly was that at the foot of the cliff wall straight ahead of Scout was a small cave, the inside of which was too dark to see. Scout sped up a bit to see the first decently exciting thing he had come across since he had left the others and stopped in front of the cave entrance.

The cave was nothing special and was quite small. The inside was still very dark even when looking from just outside. But there really was nothing to it. Scout groaned a little. He turned around and was about to head back when he noticed the five creatures now in front of him.

They were all the same species of dragon. With a theropod-like structure, like a Raptors, with sail-like appendages on the head, back and legs. On their backs they have tiny wings that were completely useless, making these creatures flightless. They were quite long and slightly taller than Scout. They all sported a thin tail that ended in a red barbed stinger, like that of a stingrays, which Scout was almost positive was full of venom. Their skin was a plain greenish color except for the one in the center. This one was slightly larger than the other four and had red stripes and highlights on its face and back.

As Scout stood there, stunned at the sudden appearance of these creatures, the middle one, Scout assumed he was the leader, began to make a rasping sound from his mouth towards the others who responded in kind. It took a second for Scout to realize that they were communicating. He began to step to the side and see if could just step around them, but the creatures noticed and snapped their heads to look at Scout and growled threateningly, stopping the mercenary in his tracks.

Scout's cocky demeanor had vanished. He was getting more and more terrfied as the creatures contemplated him with thier red eyes, their long heads and mouths opening and closing as they communicated. Suddenly, the leader zipped towards Scout with incredible speed and stood in front of mercenary, fixating its red eyes on Scout's face. Scout stared at the creature, mouth a gape. It wasn't that he was crapping his pants in fright, but because of the speed the creature possessed. It was just as fast as him, if not faster... No! It can't be! He was the fastest!

As these thoughts began to travel through his self-centered brain, Scouts face hardened. His hand, which had been inching towards his Three-Rune Sword now came in front of his face with the other hand in a sign of surrender and he finally spoke, hoping that they could understand him.

"Woah, pally! Don't be so freakin aggressive! I ain't no bad guy. But I gotta say your speed is freakin impressive!"

This took the dragons (Scout was sure they were some sort of dragon) by surprise. They had fully understood Scout as all dragons can understand human speech somehow and had exchanged confused looks and few cries of confusion. The leader then turned back to Scout and stared intently at him and Scout took that as a sign to continue what he was saying.

"But i'm also really fast. Now I could leave here fighting or we could settle who ever is faster with a race. If you win, you can kill me or do whatever you want. If I win though..." Scout thought for a second. What could he ask of a dragon. Then he remembered the dragon riders and a crazy idea popped into his head and he grinned at the dragon and finished, "you have to be my dragons!"

Scout almost thought that the dragons would kill him on the spot. To his relief, they just turned back to each other and once again continued to communicate with each other (its basically how Velociraptors communicated in Jurassic Park, thats how these guys were communicating). They continued for a few minutes, talking to each other in a language that Scout could begin to understand since it was just rasping animal sounds to him. Just when he thought he was screwed, the leader turned back to him and did something that Scout could understand. It nodded.

Scout smiled widely and straightened up. "Alright pally's heres how this will be. You five can all race me at the same time, but there will be no fighting! This is a pure race. We are going to race to the arena at the place where the vikings are. You know the place?"

The dragons nodded and Scouts smile broadened and crouched down into a runners pose.

"Cool knuckleheads, are you ready to race them?"

The five dragons responded with their cries and lined up on each side of the mercenary and crouched as well. There was a few seconds of calm silence. Then Scout yelled, "GO!" and the race began.

The six competitors raced through the forest, jumping over branches and bushes at incredible speeds. The dragons were surprised to see the human they were racing jump high once and then somehow jump again in midair to even higher heights to get over a tall bush and land on the other side without losing any speed. However, this no real advantage and as they sped along, they were all completely neck and neck.

Scouts heart was pounding as poured all his speed into his feet while listening to the sounds of the dragons nimble webbed feet with claws at the end run across the forest floor at his speed. He looked ahead and concentrated and made his feet go even faster to the point where he was as fast as if he was using a Baby Face Blaster at full boost. This gained him a small temporary lead as the dragons were watched astonished as this human ran with them as if he was one of their own. They to began to push themselves and soon the race was level once more. What was more, they were already very close to the finish line and Scout knew this. Ahead the tress were getting farther apart and Scout could even see the plain where his fellow mercenaries were beginning to construct the base of their new house. He closed his eyes and ran as fast as he could, the dragons doing the same.

Engineer and the crew of builders were just finishing up placing the large base of tightly lashed together planks which were somehow very effectively done by Engineers Wrench (TF2 Logic! If hitting sentry's, dispensers, and teleporters with a wrench repairs and upgrades them, this ain't so far fetched). They were just admiring their work when Hiccup, Astrid, Tuffnut and Ruffnut landed next to them. When they had noticed the disappearance of Scout, Engineer has asked Hiccup to go find Astrid, Tuffnut and Ruffnut who were already in the sky at that time and look for Scout. He would have gathered the team and looked himself, but he knew that this would be quicker. Hiccup agreed without hesitation and took off on Toothless to find the others. It had been an hour since and they had come back with no luck. Engineer frowned and looked out on the horizon, worry consuming his heart. Fishlegs, Snotlout, and Demoman left the arena and joined the rest of the group, their looks reflecting the others. Not even a day has passed and something has gone wrong.

"Is this usual for him to run off?" asked Fishlegs tentatively. The mercenaries exchanged looks. It was hard to really run off in a battlefield that wasn't that large. And though Scout was fast and used his speed to get out of sticky situations, it did not exactly mean he would abandon his team. Demoman was about to answer when they all heard something coming from the forest and turned their heads towards the edge of the forest. The sounds of multiple things rustling through the trees at incredible speed. The dragon riders and mercenaries lowered into defensive stances as the rustiling came closer.

Suddenly, six blurs ran out of the forest at unbelievable speeds and blew past the group who were completely taken aback by the sight and had almost not processed what had happened. They all turned to see where the things were running to and they saw them go straight towards the arena. Just before they began to run after them, one figure got a little ahead of the others and came to a stuttering halt at the center of the arena with the other figures stopping next to him a half a second later.

The dragon riders and mercenaries ran towards the arena and were astonished at what they saw. Scout and five raptor like dragons were standing there panting. Before anyone could say or ask anything, Scout smiled broadly and gasped, "I-i... won."

The five other dragons croaked feebly as they gathered their strength back. The leader straightened up a little and stared Scout in the eyes. Then five other dragons surrounded the group with their riders and were followed up quickly by the eight other mercenaries, all armed with a certain weapon.

"Leave Scout alone Speed Stingers!" Hiccup called out as Toothless growled at the dragons. The Speed Stingers formed a tight circle and hissed at the intruders. The other mercenaries began to advance menacingly and a fight was about to break out when Scout finally was able to make his voice heard.

"Wait, stop!"

Everyone turned to him shocked. He finally straightened up and said to everyone, "they aren't trying to kill me. I ran into them while walking through the forest and was amazed by their speed. I challenged them to a race and they accepted. And if I won they would be my dragons." He finished rather proudly and turned to the five Speed Stingers. The leader stepped toward Scout and after a moment bowed its head towards the mercenary, the other four following suit.

"H-How?!"

Scout, the Speed Stingers and the other mercenaries all looked up to see Snotlouts face agape in astonishment. He wasn't the only one though. All the other dragon riders were also in a state of shock at the scene they had just witnessed.

"Whats the matter chucklehead?" Scout asked. Snotlout spluttered for a second but couldn't seem to make the words form. Hiccup took up the reins and said, "Speed Stingers were thought to be completely untrainable."

The mercenaries also took up expressions of surprise and stared at the dragons who were not circling around Scout in a non-threatening manner. It was more of how a dog or cat walks around a new owner. Scouts surprised face was quickly replaced by his signature smirk and said smugly, "Well it seems that they can, though I haven't really trained them."

Fishlegs then cleared his throat and said, "Then you need to join me and Demo's classes. If you are going to be the owner of these dragons then you need to know what to do. Especially with these dragons."

Scout was about to groan but then looked at the Speed Stingers who were around him and realized how cool this could be. Five fast followers with him...

He looked up at Fishlegs and smiled and gave him a thumbs saying, "Alright I'm fine with that."

Engineer then stepped up and called to everyone, "Alright fellas, with that settled we need to get back to the task at hand. I want this house finished before nightfall."

The other mercenaries murmured in agreement but Hiccup stopped for one last thing. He turned to Scout and said, "You need to name them."

Scout was taken aback by this, but quickly recovered and looked over his new dragons. They looked back at him with their red eyes and just staring back at them, five names came to mind. He pointed at one regular one and said, "Charlie." He pointed to another one and said, "Echo." He pointed to another and said, "Delta." He pointed to another and said, "Blue." He finally pointed at the leader and said, "Red."

There was a short silence as everyone contemplated the new names. Then Snotlout drawled, "those are really stupid names."

Scout just scowled at him and headed inside with Fishlegs, the Speed Stingers and Demoman following behind him. As for the rest of the group, the returned to building the structure, but this time Engineer accepted the help of the other dragon riders when Medic and Spy pointed out that this could not be done over night without the help of the dragons. This proved very true as the dragons were able to being resources twice as fast and even speed up the construction as well.

In just under three hours, the two story house was complete. The first floor contained a living area, kitchen, bathroom and four bedrooms for Scout, Soldier, Heavy and Engineer. The second floor had two bathrooms and five bedrooms for Demoman, Pyro, Medic, Sniper and Spy. The construction had been done so quickly that they even had time to paint the outside red and build a small side room on the side for the Speed Stingers that was attached to Scouts room on the first floor. The other mercenaries thought it would make Scout happy and at least shut him up for a bit and the dragon riders thought it was a good idea to keep the Speed Stingers happy. As Fishlegs was telling Scout and Demoman, Hiccup told the others of the Speed Stingers strange venom that paralyzes victims in just one sting, though it wears off after a while.

"Interesting..." Medic whispered sinisterly as he wondered about the contents of such a poison, but the other mercenaries glared at him and he huffed into silence. There was no way they were taking a chance of Medic doing experiments on dragons.

As night fell, Scout and Demoman rejoined their fellow mercenaries after a long lesson on Speed Stingers. Surprisingly, Scout hadn't minded the learning experience so much and was even more happy to see the side room built for his new dragons. As the dragon riders and mercenaries separated for the night Scout went to his new room and showed the Speed Stingers their new room as well. It was just a small square area with a few logs here and there and five round stone plates as beds (Dragons prefer stone beds). But the Speed Stingers seemed to adore it and ran around for a bit before they tired out and each went to a stone slab. Scout followed suit and climbed into bed. The last thing he saw before falling asleep was each Speed Stinger carving their respective name on their slab before climbing on and curling up to sleep.

 **And there you have it folks, the new addition to the series. I know it isn't as long but its new content. I will try to post another chapter as soon as I can. Besides that, I am really happy to see people like Shiny Victini show their support in the reviews. It made my day and urged me to write this chapter. So thank you very much! One last thing, if anyone knew the reference I was making with the Speed Stingers names, write in the review section and I will give those people who got it correct in the next chapter. Other than that reviews are always welcome and I will see you in the next chapter... BYE BYE!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Note: Hello everyone and welcome back to another chapter! Now due to many important reasons (*cough* playing TF2 *cough*), I haven't updated in a while. This may happen a lot where I don't update soon after a chapter has been released but I do not forget about these stories. So I won't waste anymore time and get straight to this chapter.**

It was a beautiful morning for the Edge. As the sun rose above the horizon, it colored the surrounding ocean in a streak of orange and yellow colors. The shadows on the island would start to shrink as the sun slowly rose higher. Early morning dragons chirped happily like roosters ready to start the day. Unlike our heroes.

The riders and mercenaries were sleeping soundly in their respective abodes, not caring that dawn had broke. That is except for one of them.

Astrid was sleeping in her bed, quietly breathing in and out and dreaming of a beautiful day with just herself and Hiccup when she was rudely awoken by an earsplitting boom that resonated through the whole island. She tumbled out of bed in a panic and was hastily pulling on her usual armor when the earsplitting boom sounded once more and forgetting about the lopsided armor, she ran towards the door, grabbing her favorite axe as she left.

Outside, she found her fellow riders also running out in a disorientated panic. Fishlegs still had his nightcap on and was missing a boot. Snotlout ran out of his house with no armor on and proceeded to run into the doorframe of his house before actually succeeding in exiting. Ruffnut and Tuffnut both stumbled out fully dressed (Astrid assumed thats how they slept) but kept bonking into each other as they stumbled outside. Finally Hiccup came out and Astrid's heart broke slightly when she saw him. His face was sallow and his eyes had bags under them. She knew he usually stayed up studying maps and dragon science so to be awoken so early must of been a huge a pain for him.

She was about to go to her boyfriend and tell him to go back to sleep, when the earsplitting boom sounded for a third time. They all looked towards the hill where they had built the emergency alarm, a massive horn that would be used in case of an attack, and scowled. On one hand, it was a relief that they weren't being attacked by some unfriendly intruders. On the other, if they were all here, one of the mercenaries had to be behind it. Astrid grit her teeth in anger and ran towards the newly built house that the mercenaries resided in. Before she and the others made it however, the door was flung open and the mercenaries spilled out, all as sleepy and pissed as the riders.

"DAMMIT SOLDIER! EVEN HERE YOU CAN'T LET US HAVE A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP YOU FREAKIN STUPID PATRIOT!" Scout tried to yell, but it came out as a very loud yawn. He was hanging on to his new Speed Stinger, more specifically the Alpha Speed Stinger Red. Charlie, Echo, Delta, and Blue had also come out and were calling to each other. No doubt wondering what the sound was.

The riders looked at Scout confused before realizing that Soldier was not present with the other mercenaries. Hiccup yawned and to Astrid's credit was somehow able to phrase his question in a calm and professional manner despite the situation.

"Is Soldier the one up there waking us up?"

The mercenaries all nodded as a group and began to get up from the pile they had made at the front of their house. The moment they were all up, besides Scout who decided to hold on to Red and Echo and let them help him walk, they began running towards the cliff where the horn was. The riders quickly followed but they were all saved the trouble of climbing when a familiar helmeted man, using a pickaxe, came down on one of the makeshift zip lines that connected the top of the horn cliff to the ground. As he straightened up, it was obvious that unlike his fellow mercenaries and the riders that Soldier was completely devoid of exhaustion and was ready to start the day strong.

"Good morning Maggots! Are we ready for the routine morning exercise?!" Soldier called out to the group as they stopped running towards him and all lined up in front of him, not to appease him but because they all wanted to scowl angrily at the American. He didn't seem to care at all and just stared at them expectantly. When no one moved his stare hardened slightly.

"Lets move maggots! Push ups! Sit ups! Laps! Planks! Work!"

No one moved. They all just kept scowling at him. His hard stare suddenly turned to rage and his chest puffed out. Astrid was just about to ask if they could all back to sleep and not deal with this nonsense when the man in front of her bellowed so loudly, that her ears went temporarily deaf.

"I SAID MOVE YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING SLACKERS! MOVE MAGGOTS! YOU ARE WARRIORS NOT CIVILIANS! NOW CUPCAKES NOW!"

Astrid and the other dragon riders recoiled backward as the sound hit their ears. Next to them the eight mercenaries fell to the ground and immediately started doing push ups except for Scout who just slumped to the ground face first. His loyal Speed Stingers crowed around him and tried to get him up, but he just murmured something about dying and didn't move. Soldier seemed satisfied as he watched the mercenaries do the warm ups and turned his gaze on the riders.

"Now that is motivation maggots! I expect the same from you now!"

The dragon riders gawked at the man. They hadn't been expecting him to ask them to do these exercises. Snotlout stepped up, a little shakily, and said, "But we exercise differently and-"

Soldier lunged forward and grabbed Snotlout by one of the horns on his helmet and pushed him to the ground. Snotlout tried to struggle but found it futile and hurriedly did push ups so as not to be pummeled by the crazy American. Soldier looked up at the other riders and they all got down as well. All except for Astrid. She just took on her sassy stance and crossed her arms. Soldier looked at her and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Whats the matter cupcake?"

Astrid scowled back and said cooly, "Im not doing this."

Everyone stopped and gaped at her. Even Scout raised his head from the dirt and stared in disbelief. Beside him, Engineer tried to whisper to Astrid, "Don't anger him partner! Just do what he says and it will all be over."

Astrid ignored the Texan and kept her eyes on Soldier who was beginning to swell up once more. Just when she about to brace herself for the impact of his scream, he suddenly deflated and in a surprisingly calm voice asked, "Then what do you do to become and keep on being a warrior?"

This calm manner took Astrid and everyone by surprise but it was a welcome sound compared to the earsplitting yells from earlier. Astrid just smiled confidently.

"Well we do these types of exercises at times, but we prefer axe throwing, sword fighting, sparring matches. Our training lessons can be as dangerous as the real battlefield."

There was a short pause as Soldier considered this. Then he smiled.

"Then show me what you vikings are made of."

* * *

Astrid led Soldier and the still slightly tired group towards the arena dome where she proceeded to set up a large wooden target with white rings around a red dot in the center. Soldier stood beside the target, examining it as it was put up. Once that was complete, Astrid grabbed a crate full of battle axes from one side of the arena and brought it to a spot ten feet away from the target. Once that was done she straightened up and cleared her throat to gain everyones attention.

"So this is how this is going to work. We are going to have an axe throwing competition. This activity is mainly supposed to see how good you are at strength and hand eye coordination, but i have decided to make it a bit more competitive. Each person will go and throw an axe and only an axe, no personal weapons, and the score will be based on how close you get it to the center. You only have one shot. Me and the vikings will go first and then Soldier and his group will follow. Is that understood?"

Everyone nodded. Soldier went down the line of mercenaries and organized them into a horizontal line of people going first to last. Astrid did likewise before she stepped up next to the crate of axes and grabbed one. There was silence as she stared at the target in front of her. Then, in one swift motion, she pulled her arm back with the axe pointing behind her and flung her arm downwards, letting go of the axe just as it was falling level with her head. The axe spun in midair and dug into the red bullseye on the target.

Astrid straightened proudly as there was a round of applause from her fellow vikings and a few of the mercenaries. Soldier didn't clap but nodded approvingly as he wrote down the score on a piece of paper that Fishlegs had brought out. Astrid went to the target and took out her axe and motioned for the next person to come up. This person was her boyfriend Hiccup. He walked to the crate and grabbed an axe. He was sweating slightly as he took aim. He wasn't the best with combat, especially axes. He preferred swords and dragons. It didn't help that he was doing this to try and help his girlfriend prove something a crazy man. His grip tightened on the axe as he squinted through the beads of sweat trickling down his face. He swung forward and let go of the axe at the right time but due to the sweat, the axe slipped slightly and instead of hitting the center of the target, it hit a spot between the center and edge.

Hiccup breathed out a little as he calmed down. He walked forward and and took it out. He glanced towards Soldier and saw him just jotting something down on the paper but with no real emotion. He turned to Astrid who was keeping her eye on Soldier but she nodded to him to say that he did fine. He went back in line and Snotlout replaced him. Unlike Hiccup, Snotlout strutted up to the crate full of confidence. He took an axe and with barely a second of preparation he threw it towards the target. To his surprise and anger it flew askew and hit the very edge of the target.

"WHAT!" Snotlout yelled angrily, "BUT THAT WAS A PERFECT THROW!"

Astrid face palmed, groaning slightly as Scout and Sniper laughed at the temper tantrum that Snotlout was throwing. The viking in question was just taking the axe out and claiming that the throw didn't count and it was just a warm up when Soldier boomed, "NO, THAT WAS A THROW NOW BACK IN LINE CUPCAKE!"

Snotlout jumped back in fright and obeyed the command. Fishlegs walked up next and looked even more nervous than Hiccup had as he picked up an axe and stared at the target as if it was the gallows. He took in deep calming breathes and told himself that he could do it over and over as he pulled his arm back. When he let go, the flew strong but it was a weak throw and though it hit the target, it hit near the bottom edge. Fishlegs turned nervously to Astrid and tried to apologize but Astrid just beckoned him to get back to his spot in line.

Next was Tuffnut. He went up and then, to everyones surprise, past the crate and to Soldier who was just finishing putting down Fishlegs's score. Soldier looked up to see the viking in front of him and yelled, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE MAGGOT? GET AN AXE AND THROW!"

Tuffnut just smiled and asked, "Well I would, but I really prefer maces. Can we bend the rules a little and-"

"NO!"

Both Soldier and Astrid yelled at Tuffnut at the same time and he backed off. He turned back to the crate and picked up an axe and spitefully tossed it a few feet where it fell in front of the target. He picked it up and tossed it back into the crate and went back in line ignoring Astrids angry comments. Soldier shook his head in annoyance and jotted down a large zero next to Tuffnuts name.

Ruffnut then came up and unlike her twin brother, was fine with using an axe. As she picked up an axe she called to her brother in a mischevious voice, "Im totally going to beat you and your going to have to clean Barf and Belch next time!"

"No way, this was unfair and they wouldn't even let me use maces!" Tuffnut replied back. They began arguing back and forth for a few seconds before Soldier decided he had had enough. Instead of telling them to stop, he marched over to Ruffnut, pulled her arm with the axe in it and did a swinging motion with it, making her let go of the axe. Since there was no real power and accuracy to the forced throw it just fell a few feet in front of them.

"There! Now neither of you win!" Soldier said triumphantly as Ruffnut stared at the axe a few feet in front of him. Before she could argue, Astrid stepped angrily.

"How is that fair?! You basically sabotaged one of our throws!"

Soldier turned to Astrid and his eyes narrowed. "Your warriors lack discepline. In a real battle, if they argued like that they would die!"

Tuffnut raised his hand slowly and said, "But we argue in battle all the-"

Soldier head snapped towards him and he roared, "DID I STUTTER!"

Tuffnut closed his mouth quickly and shrunk back a little. Soldier kept his eyes on him before turning back to Astrid. He didn't say anything and waited for her say on the matter. There was a few seconds silence where Astrid thought hard and Ruffnut crept back towards the others and huddled close to her brother. Finally Astrid looked up at Soldier and reluctantly nodded.

"He's right. Discipline is vital."

Soldier grinned a little as he handed the scoring paper to Astrid and picked up an axe from the crate. He stood sideways, shoulder facing the target and stared at the red dot in the center. Then, exactly like Astrid, threw the axe in one fluid motion and the ace spun beautifully towards the center and stuck there. His grin didn't disappear as he took the axe out and placed in the crate and went next to his line of mercenaries. Astrid was slightly taken a back by the sheer power and accuracy he delivered and wrote down his score.

Replacing Soldier, Scout came out onto the playing field and hoisted and axe from the crate. Behind him, Charlie, Echo, Delta, Blue, and Red yapped their support for him and he smiled back at them saying, "Yeah, yeah thanks!"

He turned back and tossed the axe up and caught it by the handle once more just like he does with any melee weapon he ever uses and with out stepping back he flings the axe towards the target. It fly's hard and fast, but it hits one white ring away from the center. Scout gapes at the result and is about to complain when he notices Soldier looking at him and immediately changes his mind.

"I was going easy," he decided to say as he walked up to the target and took out the axe in annoyance. As he walked back in line, Pyro stepped out and grabbed the axe from Scouts hand. Scout raised his eyebrows but decided not to question it and stepped back in line muttering, "creepy weirdo."

Pyro stepped up to the point, and stared directly towards the center of the target. And there it stood. Pyro just stood there. No one said anything. No one quite wanted to. The mercenaries where still slightly uneasy around the mysterious thing and the vikings were even more uneasy around it. Finally, Soldier yelled, "GET ON WITH IT YOU MUTE!"

Pyro turned to him and said some muffled things in an irritated manner before turning back to the target and aiming the axe. He eventually threw the axe and it hit a dew inches from the center and Pyro clapped happily like a little girl. Slightly bewildered, Astrid watched as Pyro skipped to the target took out the axe, placed it back in the crate and skipped back in line offering Heavy a high five which he accepted uneasily but with a small grin on his face.

As Demoman walked up to the crate and picked out an axe, he suddenly look towards the riders and asked, "Aye, where are you dragons? Wouldn't they have been woken up by Soldier as well?"

"No necessarily. When I was woken up, Toothless just put his wing over his head and kept sleeping," Hiccup explained, "Im guessing the other dragons did the same in the sable house. We haven't come for them so they haven't needed to come out and are just getting some extra sleep."

Demoman nodded his understanding of the situation and proceeded to carry out the activity. Due to his experience in axes before, he scored a perfect bullseye like Astrid and Soldier and proudly took out the axe from the red dot in the midst of some applause.

Heavy was next and he picked up an axe uncertainly. "Not usually my job but..." he chuckled a little and pulled his arm back and through the axe as hard as he could. It flew from his hand at high speeds, but with absolutely no aim and it landed right between Scouts feet. Scout jumped up in surprise as the axe planted itself right between his legs, missing his crotch by an inch. He glared at the large Russian and yelled, "WATCH WHERE YOUR THROWING THAT LARD FAT!"

Heavy turned to Scout furiously. "WHAT DID YOU CALL HEAVY?!"

Scout stepped back a little as the angry Russian started towards him and he began to run. Heavy made to go after him, but Astrid stopped him.

"What are you doing-"

"Just watch," she assured him. Taking an axe from the crate, she aimed towards the laughing and taunting Bostonian and threw it. The axe soard throw the air with beautiful spins and hit the ground right in front of Scout. He was just about to taunt about how it had missed him, when he tripped over the handle of the axe and fell on his face.

He began getting up, spitting dirt from his mouth when a shadow loomed over him. He looked up just in time to see a fist come towards his face and he fell back on the ground with a black eye. Heavy walked back in line, cracking his knuckles muttering, "Never call me fat." Before he could get back in line though, he was instantly surrounded by five dragons. Scouts Speed Stingers circled the large Russian, hissing at him. Heavy was not amused.

"Who sent all these babies to fight?"

The Speed Stingers responded by hissing angrily at him and where just preparing to attack when Scout called out from his spot on the ground, "Um, a little help here."

They immediately forgot about Heavy and trotted over to their beaten down master and helped him up to his feet. Scout shakily stood on his feet and looked towards Heavy and after a moments hesitation said, "Alright I guess we are even."

Heavy smiled and pulled out a sandvich. He lumbered over to Scout and offered it to him which Scout gladly took and dug in. All the while, the vikings watched this in utter confusion and were even more confused when Scout finished and double jumped in the air fully healed calling out, "Alright, I feel good!"

"How?" Hiccup asked Engineer. Engineer exchanged a glance with Medic before smiling and explaining, "Heavy's sandvich's are so good that they can heal terrible wounds and bruises. There isn't much else to it."

Hiccup was astounded and was about to ask for more details when Soldier walked up to them and pointed to Engineer.

"Your turn Canadian!"

Engineer sighed and walked towards the crate while saying, "For the last damn time Soldier, I am not a Canadian! I am an American like you. From Texas!"

He grabbed an axe in his robotic hand and gripping tightly he aimed it towards the target, closing one eye for extra accuracy. When he found his point, he let the axe fly and it dug into a point a few inches from the center, just like Pyros. Engineer grinned a little and took out the axe. "Guess that will do."

Astrid watched Medic step up and looked down at the score sheet. The numbers were defiently pointing to the mercenaries. It didn't matter that there were more of them. It mattered how well on average each side did and her side had very little promise. She could have stopped the exercise now, but she decided to let the last three mercenaries take their turns. Besides, she thought excitedly as Medics axe hit the very edge of the target, the next activity was the going to be the more interesting one.

As Medic took out his axe, muttering slightly about the stupidness of the game, Sniper walked up the crate emotionlessly, picked up an axe and after looking at the target for two seconds threw the axe with incredible speed and power right in the center. He just as emotionlessly walked up and dug it out from the center and tossed back in the crate, ignoring the light clapping from a few of the people present. All about efficiency.

Finally, Soldier gestured for Spy to come up and the suited Frenchmen obliged. As he inspected an axe from the crate, he took note of the slightly intrigued faces of the vikings. He knew he was a very strange sight for them. A warrior dressed in a suit isn't the most prevalent around here he supposed. He grinned a little. Time to show them that he was no push over. Choosing an axe he crouched slightly and held the axe next to his head and locked his eyes on the red dot. There he stood for a few seconds before taking one step forward and letting the axe fly. It spun well and hit the inside the last ring but just outside the center. He swore on the inside, but then realized that compared to many of the others it was not bad at all.

As Spy took out the axe and tossed it in the crate, Astrid cleared her throat once more and everyone turned to her. In her hand she held the paper with all the scores. With a forced smile on her face, she announced, "Good work everyone. We have completed the first exercise. Before we move on, I know you all want to know your scores."

She looked around to see some nodding faces before beginning to read down the list.

"For the vikings, I got 10, Hiccup got 5, Snotlout got 1, Fishlegs got 3 and both Tuffnut and Ruffnut got 0. For the mercenaries, Soldier got 10, Scout got 7, Pyro got 9, Demoman got 10, Heavy technically got 0 but he punched Scout in the face so we will give him a 5 (Scout: What!), Engineer got 9, Medic got 2, Sniper got 10 and Spy got 8."

Astrid finished with a sour taste in her mouth as the mercenaries grinned in triumph, Soldier being most prominent with his chest puffed out. The only mercenary who was not happy was Scout, who was still annoyed that Heavy got points for punching him.

The other riders looked towards Astrid. Hiccup and Fishlegs looked very apologetic. Snotlout just scowled and muttered angrily. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were ignoring the scores completely and arguing between themselves.

Astrid sighed, but then remembered what was next and a smile crept onto her face. She cleared her throat once more and everyone stopped doing their own thing and listened to her as she spoke.

"Our next activity is going to only involve some of us. But it will be the most intense," she let it hold in the air for effect before finishing, "sparring."

There was complete silence as her fellow vikings gaped at her and the mercenaries slowly began to grin. Then, Soldier stepped up next to Astrid and broke the silence.

"Excellent idea! Me and Astrid here will nominate one of our own and the two will have to engage in a sparring match," he turned to Tuffnut and raised his voice a little, "and if you are chosen you can use your own weapons!"

Astrid nodded in agreement. "We will only do two sparring matches. So only four of you will be-"

"Three."

Astrid turned to Soldier, surprised by the interruption and raised an eyebrow.

"Three?"

Soldier nodded and his crazy smile formed. "You and me must spar as well girl."

Astrid was silent for a second. She was not completely sure if sparring against someone like Soldier was the smartest idea, but she couldn't back down. She smiled back and nodded before turning towards her fellow vikings to nominate the first fighter. As she looked over each of them, Hiccup stepped up and said quietly to her so the mercenaries wouldn't hear, "This is to dangerous. We don't have to do this."

Astrid locked eyes with him and said calmly, "Hiccup, we are vikings. We are born to fight. We must prove something. I understand you prefer dragons and I love Stormfly, but I am also a warrior."

She stared into his eyes and he stared back. Finally he reached his hand to his hip and unsheathed his short sword and smiled. "Then I will fight for you."

Astrid was taken aback but then grinned and as Hiccup was making towards the arena she turned his face to hers and gave him a quick kiss. He looked surprised when she pulled back and she smiled warmly.

"For luck."

He grinned and held her hand. This touching moment was interrupted by a harsh and rude voice cutting in.

"Smooching is for later!"

Astrid and Hiccup turned to Soldier who had walked up to them followed by Demoman. The black Scottish cyclops was smiling in a friendly manner, but he held the sword Hiccup and Astrid had met him with and what he called the "Eyelander."

"Aye, are you me opponent lad?" Demo asked Hiccup. Hiccup nodded and they stepped into the arena. They stepped back from each other and crouched into fighting stances. Hiccup pressed a small button on the hilt of his sword and the blade lit up in fire. Demoman's one eye widened.

"How did ye do that?"

Hiccup grinned as the waved the ignited sword around. "It's powered by Monstrous Nightmare gel hidden in the hilt. If done properly, this gel can ignite anything."

Demoman stared for at the sword for a few more seconds before chuckling slightly. "Well lad, your gonna need more than a fiery sword to beat me!"

They began to circle each other, waiting for the other to make a move. The arena was absolutely quite except for the crackling of Hiccups sword. Finally, Demoman yelled a loud battlecry and charged forward, holding the Eyelander next to his face and slashing downward on Hiccup who quickly rolled out of the way and struck from the side. It hit Demo, but the cut and fire didn't seem to bother him that much. He straightened and slashed across forcing Hiccup to jump backward. Demo followed up with some quick slashes and keeping Hiccup on his toes. Hiccup tired to get back on the offensive, but was unable to even move away with each strike coming in hard and heavy. He noted that they weren't particularly fast swings, but the reach and sheer power of the sword was able to compensate for that. Demo kept his relentless attack and Hiccup realized his backing him to a corner and thinking quickly he waved his fiery sword in front of Demo. This blinded him for a second and Hiccup was able to roll behind Demoman. Before he could do much more though, Demo turned and they stared at each other. They were both panting and Hiccup noticed he was bleeding from a few cuts on his arms. Demoman hadn't sustained any other damages other the slash to his side which was bleeding as well. He smiled up at Hiccup and said though his heavy breathing, "Aye your quick like a little bunny. Kinda like Scout. And you have skill in your fighting. But without proper power lad you cannot win."

Hiccup returned the smile. "Power isn't everything. But you are surprisingly resistant to my fire."

Demo chuckled a little. "Aye, when you battle everyday with a person who uses a flamethrower on ya to burn ye alive, you get kinda used to it." he gestured to Pyro who waved cheerily. Demoman turned back to Hiccup to see that he wasn't there anymore. He looked around just in time to see Hiccup attack him from the right and disarm him. Demoman cried out as his Eyelander clattered to the ground and stood at sword point. There was stunned silence as Hiccup looked into the demolition man's eye.

Then, suddenly, Demo threw back his head and laughed. Hiccup lowered his sword and stared as the man in front of him laughed and laughed. He was going to ask if he was okay, when Demo regained some of his control and wiping a tear from his eye he choked out, "Aye that was incredible mate!"

Everyone in the are stared at him as he smiled genuinely at Hiccup. Hiccup look down towards the Eyelander which was a few feet away, wondering if this was a huge trick. Demo noticed and raised his hands up in surrender.

"No lad, I ain't gonna do that. You won fair and square. I'm just so happy you could give me a good fight." Demo extended his hand out and Hiccup smiled and accepted it. Behind them, Astrid and Soldier walked out followed by Medic with his Crusaders Crossbow in hand. The german went up to demo and shot a syringe into his side and the wound that Hiccup had inflicted on him immediately vanished. Medic turned to Hiccup and before Hiccup could do anything shot a syringe into him as well. Astrid stared and was about to scream, when she noticed Hiccup straighten up fully and completely healed up. He to, stared at Medic in shock as.

"How-?"

"My syringes carry my special medicine which can heal wounds in an instant," Medic said, giving him the short version as he and Demo walked to the edge of the arena and joined the others. Hiccup just stood there, wanting to know more for the second time that day, but Astrid took his hand.

"Good job Hiccup," she said warmly. Hiccup smiled back and they were leaning in when Soldier pushed them apart. "I SAID SMOOCHING IS FOR LATER NOW YOU GET OUT OF THE ARENA! ITS TIME FOR THE NEXT MATCHUP!"

The two frowned at Soldier, but Hiccup obeyed and joined his other vikings. Meanwhile, Astrid and Soldier where examining their fighters and wondering who to pick. Then, Soldier pointed to Scout and yelled, "SCOUT! HERE! NOW!"

Scout groaned and made his way into the arena, equipping his Three-Rune Sword. Astrid considered Soldier's choice and then smiled.

"I see. How about this? Your loudmouth versus our loudmouth."

Soldier chuckled a little as Scout shot Astrid a dirty look. Astrid ignored him and turned to her group and called out, "Snotlout! Your to fight Scout!"

The cocky viking perked up and ran into the arena, axe in hand faced the Bostonian.

"Thor yes! This should be easy!" Snotlout jeered as Astrid and Soldier left the arena and left the two combatants to fight. Scout just sneered back.

"Screw you pally! I'm going to beat on your skull until I hit tonsils!"

Snotlout looked confused, not knowing what tonsils were, but he understood what Scout said enough to get angry. He swung his axe at the skinny mercenary only to find it hit nothing. He glanced to his side to see Scout yawning a little while twirling his weapon.

"Psyche!"

Snotlout growled and charged him again. Scout calmly double jumped over him and Snotlout tripped over himself trying to hit him in the air.

"Oh what, you gonna cry? You gonna cry now?"

Snotlout got up and charged again and again, each time missing the speedy mercenary and each time getting a different taunt.

"Hit the bricks, pal. Your done."

"Look at you! You look like you ran through traffic!"

"Hey knucklehead, you ain't gonna win!"

At this, Snotlout stopped and glared at him, gripping his axe so hard that his hands began bleeding. Scout just cackled and taunted, "Yeah I dare you, rage quit! Come on, make us both happy!"

Snotlout roared in outrage and threw done his axe. "AT LEAST IM TRYING YOU SKINNY BARNACLE! JUST DO SOMETHING ALREADY!"

Scout stared for a second before twirling his sword once and without warning he ran at Snotlout and slashed him once on one knee, once on each arm and then held the sword an inch from his neck. Snotlout gaped at the sudden wounds he had and turned his head slowly to stare at Scout. Scout just looked down at him, not smiling. Then he made an evil grin and he opened his mouth and let out one last taunt.

"I wasted you!"

Scout took the sword from Snotlout's neck and left the arena whistling. Just as he was about to join the others, he turned around and said to Snotlout.

"You ain't bad. Just slow. Besides that, I had fun."

And with that he joined the others. Medic got up and shot a syringe into Snotlout, healing him and Snotlout got up and left still unable to say anything. Replacing him, Astrid and Soldier slowly walked onto the arena. They didn't say anything. Astrid was holding her favorite axe in one hand and Soldier was holding the Equalizer, an iron pickaxe, in his hand. No one spoke. It was as if two gods had met and were to do a battle to the death.

Astrid raised her axe and jumped forward, slashing across. Soldier blocked the attack with his Equalizer and hit her once before pushed the viking back, but made no move to follow up with the attack. Astrid launched another attack and Soldier once again stood grounded blocking a few strikes but was unable to block all of them before he pushed her back once more. As Astrid skidded back and came to a stop, she wondered why he wasn't pursuing her. He wasn't even putting much effort in blocking her attacks. He was just standing there, his face set and hardened. She pushed the thought away and charged again. This time he only blocked a few and was hit multiple times on each side. As he pushed Astrid back for the third time, she straightened up and called to him.

"What is wrong with you? Are you taking this seriously?"

Soldier didn't respond. Astrid was about to ask him again when, from the sidelines, Spy spoke.

"He is taking this seriously. If anything, he is taking it too seriously."

Astrid stared at Spy confused before turning back to Soldier. She had no clue what Spy meant but decided that if this is how this fight would be then she would just beat him like this. She crouched once more and jumped at Soldier again. As her axe neared him, Soldier suddenly put up his Equalizer and easily blocked the blow and countered with a powerful strike to Astrids side. She cried out and strafed to the left as not to take any more damage and stared at the man. She put her hand to her side and almost cried out once more from the pain. She stared at him. Her eyes then lowered to the pickaxe he was holding and she put two and two together. It seemed impossible but-

"Is your pickaxe getting stronger?"

Soldier didn't respond. Instead he just grinned and brandished the Equalizer and began to advance. Astrid gripped her axe tightly and charged forward to meet the man and slashed forward, cutting him on his shoulder. He winced slightly, but had made no move to block it. He had purposely let it happen. Astrid stared at horror at the man as he raised his pickaxe and suddenly began attacking. They weren't fast strikes but they were hard to block and when he finally hit her, it was clear that it was much more painful than the last time he had hit her. She was barely able to jump back, the pain was incredibly harsh, and she panted out, "does that pickaxe deal more damage the more injured you are!?"

Soldier looked at her and laughed. He lowered his face a little so Astrid could see his eyes fully from under his helmet.

"This is my world! You are not welcome in my world!"

He readied his Equalizer and charged forward for the first time and Astrid found herself trying to keep as much distance between herself and Soldier as possible. Every once in a while, she would dart forward and deal some more damage, but would have to get out just as soon as she did to avoid being destroyed. Once or twice she failed to dodge an attack of his and had to fight the urge to scream in agony. Each strike was like a hot rod being smashed into her skin and held there.

On the sidelines, the other vikings were getting very nervous. They knew Astrid would not forgive them if they stopped the fight, but at the same time it was obvious that this was beyond a normal sparring match. Soldier was not taking this lightly. He was taking it seriously alright. When Astrid got hit once more and couldn't hold back a small cry of pain, Hiccup got up and yelled, "Astrid! This is getting too dangerous! Let's stop this!"

Astrid heard this but didn't head his warning. She was not going to be beaten so easily. She turned back to Soldier, to see that he had closed the distance quite quickly and was getting ready to strike. Thinking fast, she slashed his chest and rolled from under him as he crunched over in pain and fell to the ground. She panted as she finally seemed to have one. She approached him to put her axe to his throat and claim victory, when to her utter horror and astonishment, Soldier climbed to his feet and faced her once more. He was bleeding from his arms, legs, chest, back, shoulders, and even his cheek had been cut but he was still standing. The two fighters stared into each others eyes. Then, Soldier straightened up and tossed his Equalizer to the side.

"C'mere cupcake!" he said and he unclipped the two grenades on his vest. Astrid didn't know what he was doing but knew it was bad by the immediate reaction from his fellow mercenaries. They all jumped from their places on the side and piled onto the American. Scout grabbed the two grenades he had been holding and threw them as far as he could towards the forest. Astrid and the other vikings watched the two grenades soar through the air before disappearing into the trees of the forest. They were still wondering what the big deal was when the all of the a sudden two large explosions were heard from inside the forest and a few seconds later, a trail of smoke appeared.

Astrid and turned back to the dog pile of bodies which were the mercenaries and was lost for words. Soldier was going to take himself out to take her out. Over a sparring match. She knew she took this very seriously as well, but that was insane!

Hiccup approached her and she fell into his arms, the pain and shock from the fight beginning to settle in. Hiccup held her tight as Fishlegs approached the still writhing mercenaries and asked for Medic. Somehow, Medic heard him and extracted himself from the pile and took out his Crusaders Crossbow and fired two syringes into Astrid just to be safe.

Astrid was straightening up with Hiccups help when a roar from the forest boomed out. Everyone stopped moving and turned to the edge of the forest. Rustling bushes was heard before a dragon jumped into the open, angry eyes locked on them.

It was a stockily built dragon with armored plates on its back that resembles an armadillo's, two legs and brown leathery wings. It had two ear-like appendages on its head. The most notable feature has to be its thick, braided tail that was unwinding and splitting into three thinner ones. Each tail was equipped with a stinger much like a scorpion's. Its forelimbs act as pincers, which also resemble a scorpion's.

The newcomer roared at the group, clicking its pincers menacingly. The mercenaries dragged Soldier to the side before returning to the riders, ready to fight. Scout's Speed Stingers came to attention next to him and watched the new dragon closely.

The dragon riders themselves seemed to be not so worried. When the dragon came closer, Tuffnut exclaimed happily, "look its our Triple Stryke buddy, Sleuther!" Hiccup nodded and approached Sleuther slowly and held his hand out. But Sleuther growled and lashed one of his tails in front of Hiccup forcing him to step back.

"I think Sleuther isn't happy about those things that just exploded in the forest," Hiccup ventured as Sleuther roared again. Suddenly from behind them, multiple dragon calls were heard and they turned to see Toothless, Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang and Barf and Belch flying towards them. Each dragon landed next to their respective owners and hissed at Sleuther. Scout also stepped up next to the riders along with his pack of Speed Stingers and they surrounded the angry Triple Stryke. Despite being surrounded on all sides by six different dragons, Sleuther roared defiantly and readied himself to fight.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS MAGGOTS?!"

The yell was sudden and startling that everyone jumped in shock and looked behind to see the still battered and bleeding Soldier on his feet and walking towards the Triple Stryke. Every step he took was hard and heavy and his being radiated fury. He pushed past Hiccup and Fishlegs and went right up to the Triple Stryke. Sleuther roared at the crazy American, but Soldier just stood there unmoving. Then he began to speak.

"You are undisciplined. You have power. You have courage. You have deadly weapons. But you don't have discipline. You have no chance to beat all of us with just power, courage and deadly weaponry. But you would have a chance with proper discipline. But I can teach you! So you can kill me now or join me and become the best American dragon ever!

He stopped and stared at the dragon. It was obvious that Soldier was not fully right. His talking did not make sense in many ways. But he got his point across. Sleuther roared and then, to everyones utter bewilderment, coached down in front of Soldier and growled quietly. Soldier reached out and put his powerful hand the head of the dragon and the bond was constructed. He turned triumphantly to the group and yelled.

"Me and Sleuther are going to the best team ever!"

Then he promptly fell on his face and blacked out.

* * *

Later that evening, Astrid and Hiccup were walking along the beach together all alone and enjoying each others presence. Since the crazy morning, everyone had decided to just rest for the remainder of the day. Soldier had been moved to his room in the mercenaries house where he could sleep peacefully along with his new dragon.

As the two walked down the beach, Hiccup glanced at Astrid and saw past the small smile she had on, the confusion and shock from earlier.

"Your still thinking about what happened with Soldier?" he asked quietly and Astrid jumped in surprise. When she regained herself she nodded. "I didn't think he would go to such lengths. I knew he was a passionate fighter and a man not to be trifled with, but he went to the point of insanity."

"Thats what war is about."

The two stared up in surprise to see Soldier riding Sleuther just above their heads. He directed the Triple Stryke down and landed smoothly next to them. He got off and approached the two. His wounds from earlier were gone, but his face was just as serious and warlike as when they had met.

"You told me your training sessions are dangerous. You know that warriors have pride and honor. So why did this surprise you? Is is insanity? Or is the way of the battlefield? The Art of War?"

Astrid didn't respond immediately. She just stood thinking. Hiccup was getting a bit worried, when she finally looked into Soldier's eyes and nodded. "You are right. In a way that is. It is the Art of War but it is not the art of training. Training hones skills that can be used in any situation of battle. But what you did in the end was a last ditch attempt. When all else fails."

She let that sink. Soldier stood quiet. Then he extended his hand towards Astrid. "You are good. Real good. Maybe even the best."

Astrid looked at the hand and than up at the man that had almost killed her and himself. But thats what a Soldier is. She extended her own hand and the two fighters gripped each others hand and shook.

When they let go Soldier turned and walked towards his dragon but then he turned back around and said smiling, "Now is the time for smooching."

Astrid and Hiccup both blushed deeply. Soldier just cackled and then gave them one last salute before climbing onto his new trainee and flying back towards base.

 **There you go ladies and gentlemen! It's been a while but I hope I made up for it. Know since I only a few people that are reading this such as Shiny Victini and VivaL'Aquila since they did a review which by the way thank you and yes you are correct with the Jurassic World reference. A guest also guessed it correctly but I can't really give much when I don't know who to thank. Anyway, I will try to post soon another chapter soon. Till then, Reviews are always welcome and I will see you in the next chapter... BYE BYE BYE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello Mates! I know it has been quite a while now since the last chapter and I have some nerve coming back without one prepared. I sincerely apologize for my absence and anybody who isn't in my stories that used to be have all the right to be that way. My excuse... playing TF2 95% of the time and studying for Regents the other 5%... BUT I have come to say that I definitely will not be updating in the next 5 weeks due to the fact I will be in camp. However, this doesn't mean I still cannot write chapters offline. So, as an apology for my lack of chapter posting (but I totally have a valid excuse right? I mean I can't my $1,400 backpack go to waste...right?) I will work on chapters during camp and hopefully post a few chapter at once when I return. Now I only have two stories; Remnants New Mercenaries and Dragon Mercenaries. The one I will most likely be working on more is Remnants New Mercenaries because I can do that without much research and I know the RWBY world more than the How To Train Your Dragon one. The latter needs me to look up the dragon I will featuring so I can get accurate facts out. Obviously TF2 isn't a problem here because part of my brain is devoted to memorizing all of the TF2 weapons, hats, and lore facts. Anyway, for the ones reading Dragon Mercenaries, if I come back with only chapters for the Remnants New Mercenaries I will go straight to Dragon Mercenaries and post one or two chapters while the chapters for Remnants New Mercenaries are still being read. So that is my update here. I am by no means done with either story, i'm just a bit... obsessed. Anyway, I hope I have answered some questions. If you have questions you want me to answer before I leave, leave them in the review section of either story or Private Message me BEFORE June 25th because after that date I will be at camp and will not be able to answer them. If I get a decent amount of questions before I leave , I will make another update and post these questions and answers for everyone to read in case I get the same ones later. So with that please ask me any questions and I will see you in the next chapter/update... BYE BYE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys,**

 **It's been quite a while since I updated and honestly I should have done this a while ago so people don't have to wait for an update is never coming. This story will unfortunately be discontinued, however, I am doing a new story at the moment that I am planning to finish entirely. Before I finish, I just want to thank every single person that read and supported this story to the end. It means the world to me and I hate that I have to discontinue but after going so long and not updating, it does not feel right. Please forgive my absence and I hope you all have a wonderful day.**


End file.
